No One Tricks the Trickster
by WatchMeSoar
Summary: Picks up quite a few seasons ago-5x19, Hammer of the Gods. The confrontation between Gabriel and Lucifer, with a few tiny, minute details altered.
1. Chapter 1

"Not this time," Gabriel said, holding his blade steady in front go himself. Lucifer stopped walking, looking at his brother with a mixture of astonishment and distain on his face.

Gabriel backed up a few steps and reached down to help up Kali.

"Guys!" Kali clung to him, though Gabriel suspected that she was not aware and would deny it later. "Get her out of here." And the Winchesters would take her, he knew; they'd leave him here, and that was fine, and Dean would have the last laugh and they'd watch the video and things probably would go down the crap shoot anyway.

But that was fine. And anyway, he couldn't take the time to think about that now.

Kali was taken from his grasp, and he circled around Lucifer, keeping himself between Kali, Sam and Dean. He barely registered his brother's words until he'd made sure that the three had gotten out safely.

"Over a girl. Gabriel, really? I mean I knew you were slumming, but…I hope you didn't catch anything."

Gabriel couldn't help but smirk at Lucifer who, in his own repulsive state, found it necessary to look at him as if he were the biggest sinner in the room. "Lucifer," he said, "you're my brother, and I love you." Lucifer looked at him as though he thought Gabriel might take his side.

Ha. Not today, bro.

"But you are a great big bag of dicks."

"What did you just say to me?" And there was the first hint of malice Gabriel had heard directed at him that night—by Lucifer, anyway. The Devil began to circle around, and Gabriel did what he could to stay in the path of the door.

"Look at yourself," he spoke again, "Boo-hoo. 'Daddy was mean to me so I'm gonna smash up all His toys—"

"Watch your tone." There. There was the tone that gave Gabriel shivers up his spine. He did his best not to show it.

"Play the victim all you want. But you and me? We know the truth." The hard and hurtful truth. "Dad loved you best. More than Michael. More than me." Gabriel paused, as though waiting for Lucifer to say something. When he did not—"Then Dad brought the new baby home, and you couldn't handle it."

And there was the unholy look. The one that had only come to be after his brother's Fall.

Gabriel pressed on. "So all this," he gestured around them with his blade, "is all just a big temper tantrum."

He lowered his voice, serious for once in his long life, and pointed the business end of the weapon at his brother. "Time to grow up."

Lucifer held up his hands, as if to placate him. "If you're doing this for Michael—"

"Screw him," Gabriel said, the slightest bit surprised that he was, "If he were here I'd shiv his ass, too."

Lucifer tutted, condescending "You disloyal—"

"Oh I'm loyal," Gabriel said. Again, surprised at his own convictions. He'd spent too long purposefully avoiding them, apparently. "To them."

"To what? These…so-called gods?"

"To people, Lucifer. People."

Lucifer pretended to consider this, but Gabriel could see the hate. "So you're willing to die for a pile of cockroaches. Why?"

Why, indeed. Damn it all. "Because Dad was right. They are better than us.

"They are broken, flawed, abortions." Lucifer' expression hardened and his nostrils flared. Gabriel knew he was at the end of his fuse.

"Damn right, they're flawed," he said. "But a lot of 'em try. To do better. To forgive. And you should see the Spearmint Rhino."

Lucifer was regarding him now with an intensity that should have scared him, but in truth, Gabriel was ready.

"I've been riding the pine a long time, but I'm in the game now. And I'm not on your side, or Michael's." Gabriel smirked. "I'm on theirs."

Lucifer shook is head, and for the first time that night, looked like the brother that Gabriel had once been so close to. "Brother, don't make me do this."

"No one makes us do anything."

And like that, the familiarity was gone, though Lucifer kept his voice temperate. "I know you think you're doing the right thing, Gabriel. But I know where your heart truly lies."

Gabriel stayed still, waiting for Lucifer to make his move. And what a move it was.

In an instant, Lucifer had turned around and grabbed the arm of the second manifestation of Gabriel, sinking the raised Blade into his torso. The second Gabriel choked, gagged, looked at his brother with wide, wet eyes.

Lucifer took his face in his free hand. "Here. Don't forget, you learned all your tricks from me, little brother."

Suddenly, there was a second sharp, slick sound of a blade entering a body, and Lucifer's own eyes went wide. His brow furrowed, and he gasped. Gabriel shimmered and faded out of his grasp, and he heard his brother's voice over his shoulder. "Not all of them, Luci."

Gabriel, for his part, was suddenly at a crossroads. He felt that his blade was buried in Lucifer's back, just under the reserve of grace that would end his brother's life if he were to angle the blade just a it higher within his body.

 _I can't kill my brother._

 _Can't or won't?_

Can't. I can't.

Gabriel pulled the blade free of Lucifer's body, letting him collapse to the floor. He backed up a few steps and just watched his brother writhe on the floor. He'd live, he'd live now, but instant healing was out of the question due to the blade itself, along with a few other things. Gabriel watched him bleed and clutch blindly at his chest. He knew he should. He should kill his brother. But he couldn't do it.

He needn't have bothered so much with the decision. Within a short moment, a blink, Lucifer was gone from his presence, leaving a pool of blood in his wake—the pagans', as well as his own.

Gabriel stood there alone for a free moments, brought out of his thoughts by the thunder of the impending storm. He stowed his blade, and he left. He resolutely did not look back at the motel.

He needed to find the Winchesters. They had a Devil to catch.

 **A/n: Sooo. I really need Gabe to come back. I haven't written anything past this, but if you all like it, I'll see what I can do.**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/n: I know it's short, but this chapter is just sort of me acknowledging the fact that I'm going to keep this thing going. Huzzah! Anyway, Thanks so much for the support, I'm glad people love Gabe as much as I do :)**

 **This author's note is gonna be long. Prepare.**

 **A few of you have mentioned my cover art. Thanks for noticing! Yes, it is my drawing and character design. She's actually an OC for a story that is sort of on the back burner right now, but 'll get to eventually.**

 **As far as Gabriel's skills go, I'm under the impression that while he is an archangel and therefore one of the most absolute and powerful beings in existence, he is in fact the least powerful out of them. In** ** _Supernatural_** **the Archangels are Michael, Lucifer, Raphael, and Gabriel, which is not exactly Biblical but there you go. It is said many times that Lucifer must be defeated by Michael, which suggests that the other two are younger/less powerful than he is. This is how I interpret things, and if I've missed some explicit detail that would contradict this, please feel free to let me know.**

 **After this chapter, it's likely that the story will be more like one-shots within the Spn universe plus Gabriel—the situations that I think would still happen with Gabriel on the team. I'd have to rewrite like seven seasons otherwise, you guys, stay with me here.**

 **Okay. I'm done. Go, go on, read the thing.**

When Gabriel caught up to the Winchesters, they'd opened his last-ditch message, and who was he to interrupt their enjoyment?

 _Sam. Dean. I bet you're wondering what the hell is going on._

He was proud of this video.

He sat back for a while, enjoying the boys' reactions to his performance, but when they shut the laptop he decided it was best to announce himself as not-dead.

"Glad to see you boys were so broken up about my passing. I'm touched."

Sam and Dean jumped, Dean even whipped around with his gun trained on Gabriel. "Hiya, gentlemen."

"Gabriel?" Sam said. "I thought you were dead. The video just said you were dead."

Gabriel shrugged. "Well, I sort of expected to catch you before you played the thing, but there ya go."

Dean stepped forward. "Well what the hell did you mean? In the video."

"Dean-o, I thought it'd be fairly obvious."

Dean rolled his eyes. "Yeah, okay, can we catch Lucifer?"

"Wait," Sam interrupted, "did you kill him? You're here, that means you won, right?"

The kid looked so darn excited, Gabriel's smile had to dim a bit. He hesitated. "No. No, I don't kill him."

"What the hell?" Dean threw his arms to his sides, incredulous. Sam looked no more forgiving.

Gabriel gave them a hard look. "What is the one thing people keep telling you to do, and the thing that you both keep refusing?" Gradually, both Dean's and Sam's faces cleared in understanding. "I can not kill my brother."

Silence prevailed for a moment. Gabriel was the one who decided enough sentimentality was enough. He clapped his hands once. "So," he said, "What now?"

"I guess we catch him," Sam said. "We get the rings."

Dean nodded, "Hunt down the remaining Horsemen."

Gabriel looked around once. "Where's Cassie?"

Sam and Dean shared a brief look, "He's, uh," Sam started, "He's looking for Him. For, um, God."

Gabriel let out a breath. "Of course he is," he said.

Sam, uncomfortable, said, "Why don't you come with us?"

Dean cut in, "Wait—"

"We could use him, Dean," Sam said to his brother. "He's an archangel, if we run into Lucifer he could take him."

"Ah," Gabriel said. "Actually, no."

"What do you mean, 'no?'"

"I mean, Einstein, that there are less than ten beings in existence more powerful than I am, and Luci is one of them."

Dean smiled humorlessly. "Well, that's just great," he said, "We get the least helpful duchebag with wings. Wonderful."

"That doesn't mean he can't still be helpful, Dean."

"I don't fancy dying once a day until we find this thing, Sam!"

"I'm right here."

Dean turned his attention back to Gabriel, "Yeah, and how did you get away, anyhow?"

"I'm tricky."

Dean and Sam both nodded a bit in recognition, and they were quiet once again. Finally, Sam seemed to come to a decision. "So," he said, "you coming, or what?"

Gabriel just grinned.


End file.
